WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� President said Monday that he’s building a granite helipad on the White House lawn, insisting that the landing area is needed to accommodate new, more powerful presidential choppers.
Confirmation of the project came as construction crews had already begun working on the helipad on the South Lawn, where the president had UFC build a temporary arena for celebrating his 80th birthday. He said the project would be privately funded and estimated its cost at up to $6 million.
鈥淚t鈥檚 got the seal of the White House on it in granite, in carved granite,鈥� Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “It鈥檚 really a beautiful thing.鈥�
The Republican president did not offer details on how long the work would take. It is the latest major construction project he has overseen in an effort to increasingly mold the White House in his own image.
The helipad can handle new choppers, Trump says
Some of Trump’s major White House construction projects have relied on public money, even when the president initially suggested otherwise. Still, Trump said that Sikorsky Aircraft, a subsidiary of defense contracting giant Lockheed Martin, would be paying for the helipad.
Asked about the cost of the project and a timeline for its completion, Lockheed Martin responded with a statement reading in part: 鈥淭his specific contribution was made to the Trust for the National Mall, the National Park Service鈥檚 nonprofit organization鈥� and 鈥渃onducted in full accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.鈥�
In 2024, Sikorsky completed a new fleet of helicopters for use as Marine One, and President Joe Biden aboard a modern VH-92A Patriot helicopter on his way to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago 鈥� the same day Sikorsky delivered the last of the 23 new aircraft.
But Trump said the newer aircraft were more powerful than Vietnam War-era choppers that long had been used as Marine One, and that the modern ones were too potent to land on the White House lawn without damaging the grass.
“It鈥檚 not that the grass gets discolored 鈥� it gets ripped out,鈥� the president said.
Indeed, the new aircraft has indeed seen limited service because their exhaust vents aim heat downward, scorching the White House South Lawn.
The Marines and Sikorsky have spent years trying to find a solution to the problem, which has meant that the new helicopters haven’t been used at the White House. Trump recalled telling a group of gathered military generals that a White House helipad would solve those problems.
The president said Sikorsky was building the helipad and paying the “full cost鈥� because they 鈥渇elt a little bit guilty鈥� that the new fleet of helicopters was too powerful to land at the White House.
Trump also said he told builders to 鈥渄o a beauty鈥� and suggested granite rather than simply laying concrete and painting it white.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e landing on granite, which is the strongest stone,鈥� the president said, noting that the completed landing pad could also be used for other events, like outdoor White House news conferences. He added that the helipad will allow officials to 鈥渇inally retire 45-year-old helicopters鈥� that had been used as Marine One.
Trump’s other projects to remake the White House include part of the Rose Garden for a patio space reminiscent of his estate in Florida and affixing partisan plaques to the wall of the colonnade for a .
Trump also had crews attached to the Lincoln Bedroom and renovate the Palm Room, place new on the north and south lawns and for a .
Efforts to improve presidential helicopters go back decades
While the term 鈥淢arine One鈥� is applied to a variety of helicopter models that transport presidents, the most iconic and longest serving helicopter to take on the mission is the specially modified VH-3D Sea King helicopter that first entered service in 1978.
In the early 2000s, President George W. Bush, a Republican, began an effort to modernize the helicopter fleet, but the program ran into cost overruns, leading it to be scrapped by President Barack Obama’s administration.
Obama, a Democrat, restarted the program, but new, technical issues emerged, and it wasn鈥檛 until May 2014 that the military finally awarded Sikorsky a contract to build the next presidential helicopter — the VH-92A Patriot, which were the aircraft delivered in 2024.
A Marine Corps spokesman, Capt. Jacob M. Sugg, declined to comment on matters pertaining to the White House property. But he said the Marine One squadron currently consists of nine Sikorsky VH-3D Sea Kings that were first deployed in the 1970s, as well as six Sikorsky VH-60Ns deployed in the late 1980s and 10 of the newer VH-92A Patriots.
Trump says 鈥榓 lot of love is being put into the White House鈥�
Later Monday, Trump addressed a lunch in the Rose Garden patio space and detailed yet another White House construction project, this one to revamp the columns on the building’s north side.
Crews have erected scaffolding and Trump said, 鈥淲e鈥檝e taken about 150 years of paint off of the columns,” noting that, 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 strip the paint off, it gets worse and worse and worse.鈥�
鈥淎 lot of love is being put into the White House,鈥� Trump said.
He didn’t say who would be covering the cost of the column work.
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